


The Smile That You Bring

by ishouldbeworkingrightnow (notjustalittlegirl)



Category: Barbie and the Diamond Castle (2008)
Genre: Alexa and Ian are shy, Baked Goods, F/M, Fluff, Love Confessions, Shyness, and Liana and Jeremy are trying to encourage them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-24 16:21:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12016506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustalittlegirl/pseuds/ishouldbeworkingrightnow
Summary: Alexa and Ian shyly try to let each other know how they feel without using words. Eventually, however, words become necessary.





	The Smile That You Bring

**Author's Note:**

> My inner 8 year old has emerged. I rewatched Barbie and the Diamond Castle and got inspired. Title from Two Voices, One Song. I don't own Barbie, and I am making no money from this, as it is purely for entertainment purposes. Don't sue me. Hope you enjoy.

In reality, it started before the golden rose that Alexa and Liana threw on the stage the first time he and Jeremy performed with the new guitars given to them by the Muses. It started before that, but the rose was the first time that Ian really knew that that  _ something  _ he had felt for Alexa wasn’t just a dream. 

He had felt it for the first time he had swept the dark-haired girl up onto his horse and felt her wrap her arms around his waist. The feelings had persisted, stirring in his heart throughout their entire adventure, but the first time he felt that she might actually return them (not counting their dance at the Diamond Castle, which had been the result of a combination of happiness at their success and following the example of the ever-bolder Jeremy and Liana) was when she met his eyes after throwing the rose up onto the stage. 

The rose was only the beginning. 

Neither Ian nor Alexa was a particularly bold person. All of Ian’s bravado came from the company of Jeremy, and when he was alone he was far quieter and far meeker. For her part, Alexa was a quiet little thing. Liana was definitely the mouthpiece of the two but, from what Ian could gather, Alexa was the reasonable one, the one that kept Liana grounded. Even if she had a few crazy ideas of her own sometimes. 

If neither Ian nor Alexa was brave enough to make the first move, then it was the little things that they each did that let the other know that they were waiting for something to happen. 

After Alexa’s rose, it was Ian’s gift of cookies, left on the girls’ doorstep. He hadn’t bothered to knock, knowing that Liana would invite him in and conveniently find some excuse to leave him alone with her friend. There would have been no way for them to know that it was him, except for the frosted guitar on top of the first cookie. 

He had to admit, he was worried that they would think the cookies were from Jeremy, but when he saw Alexa’s blush as she opened the basket, he knew that she knew. A brilliant smile that Ian could only compare to sunshine broke out across her face, and he felt a blush rise on his cheeks from his hiding spot behind a tree as she closed the door. 

The next time Jeremy saw Alexa, he and Jeremy were at her home on an actual visit, rather than a quick run over to deliver secret cookies. Liana and Jeremy were sitting together on one side of the small table, which was cramped with double the amount of people that were usually sat there. The two were practically cuddling, and Ian and Alexa were sitting awkwardly on the other side of the table trying not to watch what was an obviously tender moment. 

There was a distance between their chairs that was only slightly greater than that of their counterparts, but when Liana and Jeremy took their leave to walk around the garden, and it was only Ian and Alexa sitting together on their tiny side of the table, neither moved to fill a vacant seat that would give them so much more room. 

“Brother,” said Jeremy as they started the walk back towards the village. “What are you doing?” 

“What do you mean?” Ian asked, even though he was already almost certain he knew what Jeremy was talking about. Jeremy gave him a look.

“Alexa, you daft idiot. It’s obvious to anyone with eyes that you’re as crazy about her as I am about Liana. Why haven’t you made a move yet?” 

Ian shrugged. “I can’t.”

Jeremy stopped walking, and Ian ground to a halt at his right side. “What do you mean you  _ can’t _ ? You must know that she likes you just as much as you like her!” 

“I just can’t, Jeremy. You know that I’m only clever and brave when you’re there with me! I couldn’t possibly find the words…” 

Jeremy wrapped an arm around his twin’s shoulders, and Ian could practically feel the eye roll. “I know you can. If you really have those feelings for Alexa, then you’ll be able to.”

As soon as the door closed behind Ian and Jeremy, Alexa busied herself with gathering the dishes from the table. She knew when Liana had something on her mind, and while she was normally all too happy to talk to her best friend through the night, there was one thing that was  _ not  _ on Alexa’s Things-To-Talk-About-With-Liana list. Her own love life.

And that was, obviously, what Liana wanted to talk about. She could tell, because her friend had never needed to drag Jeremy out into the garden to get all gooey before. When she had pulled her own beau out of the house, she had given Alexa a pointed look, then glanced between her and Ian. 

Well, if Liana had thought anything was going to happen, she was going to be sorely disappointed. 

Liana didn’t even need to ask to know that nothing had happened between Alexa and Ian that night. If it had, Alexa would have been squealing about it the second the boys had left. So, instead of asking, Liana simply gave the dark haired girl one of her Looks.

“What?” Alexa never took her eyes off the dishes, and feigned innocence. Liana didn’t buy it, and just kept staring a hole in the back of Alexa’s head until her friend finally gave up and turned to face her.

“Okay, fine, Liana. I’ll bite. What do you want me to  _ do? _ ” 

“Hmm…” Liana pretended to think for a moment. “How about my best friend to make her move on the man she’s so obviously falling in love with so she can stop using up all our paper drafting notes to him and we can have a double wedding?”   

Alexa grimaced, balking at the thought of being the one to confess her feelings to Ian. Especially in person. 

“Oh, no. I can’t.” 

Liana came over to the sink, grabbing Alexa’s arm and causing her to drop the plate that had been Jeremy’s into the soapy dishwater. “Why on earth can’t you? Ian loves you, you love him, it’s about time that you admitted it!” 

“C’mon, Li. You know I’m not brave like you are. The only way I’ll end up married to Ian is if he’s the one to tell me how he feels first.” 

Liana yanked Alexa away from the sink and pulled her to sit down at the table, in the chairs that she and Ian had occupied only a few minutes ago. “That’s nonsense, Al. You’re plenty brave when you want to be, and if you’re really as in love with Ian as I think you are, then you’ll manage to tell him.” 

Alexa groaned, and considered drowning herself in the dishwater rather than taking Liana’s advice.

Ian left his and Jeremy’s house early in the morning, knowing that if he stopped to think about what he was about to do, he would end up backing out. Plus, if he waited until his braver twin woke up and asked where he was going, Jeremy would only end up trying to give him some useless brotherly advice that would make him both want to back out and possibly impale his brother with a sharp object. 

So out Ian went at the crack of dawn, baked goods that would hopefully be useful in wooing the girl of his dreams in hand, and started down the path that led to Liana and Alexa’s little house. Hopefully the walk would take long enough so that she would actually be awake by the time he arrived. 

Alexa, for her part, had barely slept a wink that night. From dusk until dawn she had tossed and turned, pondering Liana’s words and going back over every single word and glance that she and Ian had ever shared with a fine-tooth comb, checking and double-checking to make sure she wasn’t about to make an enormous fool out of herself. Then she closed her eyes, hoping to get enough rest so that she wouldn’t look like a complete sleep-deprived monster when she went to meet Ian. 

Ian felt the butterflies in his stomach begin to flutter as soon as he rounded the bend and passed the tree that he and Jeremy used as their landmark to signal that it was around a mile more to the girls’ cottage. He almost turned around right then and there, thoughts of  _ there’s no way she’ll feel the same. Jeremy is an idiot,  _ and the like filling his head. What was he doing? This was going to be the biggest mistake of his life. His grip tightened on the basket full of cupcakes that he had learned were Alexa’s favorites, and he put one foot in front of the other again. 

Once she had fussed with her hair for upwards of ten minutes and done everything she possibly could to hide the bags under her eyes short of waking Liana (the notorious late riser) and asking her for help, Alexa picked up her specially plucked bouquet of roses and sneaked out the door, trying to convince herself that she was not making an enormous mistake. Her search over every single second she and Ian had spent in each others’ company hadn’t yielded anything that would directly convince her that he didn’t feel the same way as she did, but nor had it provided concrete evidence to support Liana’s theory that the boy was madly in love with her. 

She started down the path towards the village, hoping that Liana would find her note quickly and not worry that she had been kidnapped in the middle of the night. As she turned around a bend, she ran smack into someone, and their basket flew from their arms and landed on the ground a few feet away. She managed to keep ahold of her roses, but she nearly lost her balance, until the arms of the person she had run into steadied her. 

“Alexa?” 

Looking up, her eyes locked on a familiar face, though she couldn’t fathom what this particular face was doing so near her cottage so early in the morning. 

“Ian! Oh, goodness, I’m sorry!” 

She bent down and retrieved his basket, which seemed undamaged, and handed it back to him. Then they stared at each other for a moment, neither completely sure what the other was doing. Once the silence had gone on long enough that any ordinary person would find it awkward, Ian spoke again. 

“Alexa, I…” 

He stopped. Emboldened, she started. “Ian… Um… I just wanted…” 

Alexa felt her face turn red, and when she looked up she found that he was blushing too. Then they both spoke at the exact same time. 

“I need to tell you something.” 

The jinx made them both smile for a moment.

“You go first,” said Alexa, pulling the roses closer to her chest. 

“No, you,” said Ian, checking his basket to ensure that the contents were undamaged. 

Neither seemed willing to be the one to speak first this time, and the silence grew between them again. Until, Alexa took a deep breath, steeled herself, and thrust the roses forward. 

“IjustwantedtotellyouthatI’mfallinginlovewithyou.” 

Ian took the offered roses, a smile splitting across his handsome face. 

“Funny thing,” he said, passing the still-blushing and on-the-verge-of-a-panic-attack Alexa the slightly smushed cupcakes. “That was just what I was coming to tell you.” 

And there, in the middle of the path, Alexa wrapped her arms around Ian’s neck and let him pull her off her feet for a bruising kiss. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed my Barbie fluff.


End file.
